Should you ever accept a low offer as a home seller?

| Selling

Let’s face it sellers, getting under asking is painful. So how do you get top dollar, and is it ever okay to settle for a low offer?

The truth is, when it comes to selling, the offers you get have a lot to do with your selling strategy, not just current market conditions.

Here we look at how to set the right price to attract fair offers and when, if ever, it’s okay to accept a low offer as a seller.

Setting Your Listing Price

We could go into mind numbing details about demographics, the economy, yada, yada, yada, but ultimately, the main influences on your home’s current value include:

  • Interest rates and borrowing affordability
  • The going return on investment for any renovations you have done
  • Time of year
  • Home type (detached, semi-detached, condo apartment, town/rowhouse, etc.)
  • Location
  • Type of market

How do interest rates affect home prices in Canada? Read this blog to find out.

What do we mean by type of market?

In a balanced market, inventory is meeting demand and buyers and sellers are on equal ground keeping prices reasonable. In a sellers’ market, inventory is low, which means the market isn’t meeting demand, pushing prices higher as buyers are forced to compete for limited homes. In a buyers’ market, inventory is high, reducing competition and keeping prices lower due to buyer negotiating power.

What market type leads to low offers?

Honestly, low offers are expected in a buyers’ market when demand is down, and inventory is up as buyers have more negotiating power.

So, although we’d love to say we price homes to ensure you make a profit, that’s unfortunately just not the case and is in fact an unbelievably bad strategy. When we consider pricing, we do a market analysis and research comparable prices in your area. We visit local listings to size up the competition and compare those homes to yours. From there we can determine how we can affordably get your home to that level – or better — and then craft an effective selling strategy. As a result, it’s less likely you’ll have to worry about accepting lowball offers.


The real estate market is always changing, here are some more blogs to answer some of your most pressing questions about selling:


What about average prices?

Toronto neighbourhoods are far too diverse to speak in terms of averages. When you think about it, it just takes two or three extremely high or low sales to skew the average price for your area. That’s why it’s so important to do the legwork instead of just looking at averages that really aren’t usually applicable to specific homes.

The Importance of Getting It Right

One of the main reasons sellers end up having to take offers below asking is that they didn’t get the listing price right to begin with.

When you over price your home, you create a domino effect of bad karma:

  • Buyers’ agents will pass over your home knowing it’s overpriced
  • Your home will sit on the market longer, raising red flags something’s wrong with it
  • You’ll either need to reduce your price, which smacks of desperation leading to lowball offers OR take your home off the market, wait a bit, and then relist with a smarter pricing strategy

When you get the price right, you generate nothing but positive vibes:

  • You’ll create more interest with buyers’ agents, so more people see your home
  • You’re more likely to generate multiple offers OR have a buyer love your home enough to go in with a higher offer – either way you increase the odds of selling over asking
  • Market friendly pricing almost always means your home will sell faster

How do you achieve amazing results when selling your home? Work with the best Toronto real estate team, of course! Find out what sets amazing real estate teams apart from the rest with this blog next.

Meeting Buyer Expectations

Getting the right price for your home is also dependent on meeting buyer expectations. Working with the best Toronto real estate team will ensure your home is a) priced properly AND b) you meet buyer expectations when they view your home.

An experienced real estate team (like us, blush) will ensure everything is in place to generate offers at or above asking, including:

  • Fixing what’s broken so buyers see your home is well-maintained and have little to nothing to complain about
  • Decluttering to make your home more spacious with ample storage
  • Thorough professional cleaning to remove the “ick factor” that keeps buyers from considering your home
  • Staging that allows your home to shine with simple, affordable updates like fresh neutral paint, updated light fixtures and intentional furniture placement that creates purpose in every room, optimizing space

What do homebuyers look for? Read these posts next:


So, Should You Ever Accept a Low Offer?

Even when you’re disenchanted with your home, it’s hard to shake off your emotional attachment to the place! That can make it hard to remain realistic and understand what makes a fair, reasonable offer. Here’s a few scenarios where accepting a low offer is not only acceptable, but probably necessary:

  • For whatever reason, your home has sat on the market noticeably longer than the average listing
  • You’ve seen a lot of traffic but no offers, telling you something is devaluing your home in buyers’ eyes
  • You’re on a tight timeline to sell for financial or personal reasons

In the end, working with a savvy real estate team is the only way to ensure you’re accepting an offer that is the best you can expect given your circumstances. We’ll also use a selling strategy to ensure your listing is priced fairly. That fair price will then be reflected in fair offers. What goes around comes around, even in real estate!

Looking for smart advice on selling your Toronto home? The Christine Cowern Team can help. Give us a call at 416.291.7372 or email us at hello@christinecowern.com. We’d love to work with you!